The Ministry of Education is racing against time to cover the teacher shortages throughout the country, with an estimated 10,000 substitute teachers expected to be appointed by the end of the month.
According to teacher federation DOE, the new school year started with 14,000 empty teaching posts, while in 271 kindergartens and primary schools no teaching has been carried out at all. Most of these schools are located in the Cycladic islands, Evia, Laconia, Lesvos, Limnos and Aetoloakarnania, according to Ta Nea.
The caretaker government has NSRF and budget funding for 19,000 substitute teachers, who are not enough to cover school needs. Furthermore, there were delays in recruitment procedures, meaning that the first substitute teachers will be appointed after the elections. In practice this means that many of the short-staffed schools will essentially operate as babysitter centers.
In an interview to the Ethnos newspaper, the caretaker Education Minister Efrosini Kiaou underlined that more than 10,000 substitute teachers will have been recruited by the end of the month, with empty schools being a top priority.
